“So well, my lady.” Eryx sighed, giving Rhazien a wink. “We bit into some really meaty topics.”
Needing to contain my disdain, I pressed my lips into a tight smile. I couldn’t expect him to not participate in diplomatic negotiations. I couldn’t expect him to not feed. But I hadn’t expected this.
A heavy disappointment rooted itself in my gut at my foolishness. Of course he drank blood; he needed it to survive. He’d just never been so blatant or belligerent about it. I ran my eyes over him and I felt like I was seeing him for the first time.
“You look stunning as always.” His breath was hot against my neck. Everything about him, from his posture to the way his hands roamed my bare skin, reminded me more of a man untethered in a brothel than a regent of a kingdom.
“Yes, Lady Reyva. Good enough to…eat,” Eryx concurred.
A poorly timed scream pulled my attention from the unnerving comment. A young man dressed in tattered cloth was being fed on ten feet away. Blood poured from his neck, wrist, and inner thigh, where each vampire took their fill. His glassed eyes were lifted to the ceiling and his mouth, frozen in the shape of his scream, was agape.
“Thank you,” I muttered the delayed response, my discomfort barely concealed beneath the surface of my revealing, backless gown and sweating palms.
“Dommik, it’s good to have you home. You know you’re welcome to return whenever you’re done playing house or whatever it is you do in thesouth.” Trails of blood stained the long pale neck of the Northern Hive Regent.
“I feel fulfilled in my current post, thank you,” the commander responded, but his focus was elsewhere. He was watching Rhazien, the way he was gripping me—just a little too tight, and too close—and the way I lost balance under the weight of him.
“She smells,” Eryx leaned down and inhaled deeply, clenching his jaw while he savored my aroma, “divine, Rhazien. You’reabsolutelysure we cannot sample her?”
I was no better than a prize cow.
Rhazien’s fury erupted, standing chest to chest with Eryx, hissing with fangs in full view. His powerful movement sent me flying backward, but instead of meeting the ground or the body of a nearby stranger, Dommik wrapped me into his arms.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered and I knew he did. In my marrow, I knew he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me.
Get me out of here,I pleaded with my eyes, but he had returned to assessing the exchange between the regents. Dommik guided me behind him, creating a barrier between me and the vampiric exhibition of dominance.
Their behavior was the primal, carnal, predatory nature I’d expected when I’d chosen the Hive instead of the axe. Had I been completely naïve to the most authentic nature of the vampires I’d lived amongst? Or had they made more accommodations for me than I’d realized?
A heavy fog of doubt and insecurity layered my insides.
Maybe I knew less than I thought.
Or worse.
Maybe I knew nothing at all.
“Message received,” Eryx hissed back through his own fang-filled smile. “But I am ready for a snack.” He yanked his arm across his chest, revealing a chain clutched in his fist. The metal leash pulled a lethargic, naked woman into view. Her thin body was covered in dozens of bite marks. All in various states of healing, all with thin trails of dried blood spreading from the small, circular wounds.
My heart sank. Her cloudy eyes strained to look up at me and went wide as Eryx pushed her matted auburn hair away from her neck before sinking into her.
I knew I couldn’t react. It wasn’t my place. So, I resisted the naturalgasp that wanted to escape and instead, without hesitation, reached out for the first hand I could grab. Dommik’s.
The commander pulled me further behind his back, concealing our interlaced fingers between our bodies. A party guest moved past me and pressed my chest into his back. His muscles tensed at the connection.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s fine.” In his own hushed tone, he instructed, “Stay close.”
“Rhazien, have a taste of this one,” Eryx encouraged from the other side of my vampire barrier. “She’s the younger sister of the one we drained earlier.”
Nausea burned in my throat. I needed to re-center myself. I inhaled through my nose, trying to ignore the dank scent of the cave and focus only on the familiar earthy tone of pine from Dommik.
I rested my forehead on his back and he squeezed my hand again as if to say,I’ll protect you.
The swirl of hunger and music and mead and lust flittered around us. Not two days before was Rhazien my calm in the chaos. Now, he was a source of distress.
I was frozen. Unable to run, unable to move. A wave of pain mounted in my lower back.
